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Part three of an oral history interview with Mr. Ivor Chappell about his early wartime experiences when he lived in Kempston, Bedfordshire. The interview was conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum.

SEE ALSO memories previously submitted to the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ ‘People’s War’ website — ‘Joining the D.E.M.S.’, ‘Forever Young’ and ‘Some Christmas’s Remembered, 1942, 43, 44 & 45’ by Mr. Ivor Walter CHAPPELL about his time in the Royal Navy posted to D.E.M.S. gunner duties on board ‘Empire Spartan’ HMS Chrysanthemum and HMS President.

Call-up
“You got the brown envelope with ‘OHMS’ on here and this pal of mine that I was working with at Eastwood’s, his name was Reg Hobbs, he lived at Houghton, he and Joe King were mates. When Joe never came back, Reg and me became mates. Anyway, we were working at Eastwood’s and Reg would say to me, ‘Any news yet Ivor?’ ‘No! Have you heard?’ His birthday was October the 1st - mine was October 25th, so we were both 18 (in 1942). So we were waiting now, what were they going to do with us? We were due to go in the Navy, hope we get into the Navy. And through the door one day comes this brown envelope, ‘OHMS’ and we had to go this address in Cambridge for a Medical. I mean we are country boys, we’d never been anywhere, I mean the furthest we’d been is Luton or Northampton perhaps we didn’t know much about the world, crooks — only on pictures — we didn’t know nothing! We were naïve kids - we were 18. So anyway Reg calls for me one day, I’ll tell you where we went — we went on the old Bedford — Cambridge railway line - which is no longer there. We caught this train, we got in the carriage, there was another old boy there, he had a cast in one eye and we were all going for a Medical. So we get off at Cambridge, our old hearts are going and what’s going to happen. ‘Excuse me, can you tell me the way to … ‘ ‘Yes, you go down here, second left’ and eventually we get to this old school. We go in, name and address and papers and so forth and there’s a Naval Petty Officer taking it all down and a couple of WRENS for good measure. Then you take your clothes off - you keep your trousers on — nothing else. Roll your clothes up in ball and stick them over there out of the way but keep an eye on them. So we take off the clothes, well there are naked blokes all around us — I ain’t used to that! I’m not used to it. Anyway, I don’t know, Victorian outlook, I don’t know. Right, now go in there, fill these bottles. Well there was a lot who couldn’t fill their bottles - they’d already been before they come in there. So this Petty Officer said, ‘I’ll show you’ he said ‘Stand by’ and he went in he turned the taps on and the gush of water, ‘Oh, yes’ they say and they all rushed off to fill their bottles, running water does it, it triggers it off. So we fill the bottles and off they go. Then Chappell, Smith, Jones, number 1- so there’s all these doors you know — so I goes in number 1, we did eight doctors, eight! There was always the bit were he felt you down below and he said, ‘Cough!’ And he’s holding you down, he’s looking for ruptures. So, he said, ‘Turn your bloody face away, don’t cough in my face!’ ‘Sorry Sir. Cough, cough.’ ‘Yes, OK’. That was OK so we passed him. Then comes the one where you drop your trousers and to be quite blunt he said ‘Bend over’ and he looks straight up, you know. See if your hat is on straight, we all said. Yes, he looks right up your rectum. And then he comes round the front and then you sit down and they try your knees and your toes and then they test your heart and your lungs particularly your eyes and then you have to do this kind of thing and do that. We did these eight doctors and I always said, ‘Well, if you weren’t fit then we’d never be fit.’ 18 years old and we were like tigers. I used to go up Ampthill Park running and jumping and all that stuff and it all stood me in good stead. Over at Eastwood’s wheeling barrows. So anyway we passed ‘A1’. So then, when we thought the worst was over we had to go in this big classroom. And there was a WREN Officer in there, I never liked her, but anyway there she is, ‘Come on, sit down, sit down’ and she passed out papers and they were exams to what you’d got up here, to see if you were cracked or what! I’ll always remember one of the questions, if you were up 50 foot high and you dropped a pound weight of lead or a pound weight of feathers, which would hit the floor first? You would have thought the lead would have hit the ground first but it’s not heavier, they both weigh the same. You see, catches! Anyhow Reg said, ‘How did you get on mate?’ I said, ‘Well I done all the easy ones, then I done the bit harder ones and I was on the real hard ones when the bell rung and we had to stop.’ So I said, ‘I done about 60% of them.’ And I passed! And Reg passed. So we were walking down these stairs and Reg says, ‘Here, Ivor look’ and standing at the foot of the stairs was this old boy that - we used to call them boss eyed, crossed eyed. He was crying and we said, ‘What’s up?’ he said, ‘I’ve failed my Medical, this eye.’ So what happened to him — he perhaps became a sick berth attendant were you didn’t have to have 100% eyes or he went in the Army, whatever, we never knew what happened to him but his was a lovely old boy, ships that pass in the night. So we came home and we were ‘A1’. So now we were waiting for ‘call-up’ and it didn’t come till March 1943. So we were meeting again, Reg and I in the brickyard, ‘Any news?’ ‘Not a thing, not a thing’. And then one day the manager, a Mr Paisley, a fat man, homburg hat, collar and tie, didn’t know what hard work was, we were making him thousands of pounds every week, working hard and dirty too. And he said, because he always mixed me up with my pal, I’m Chappell and he was Hobbs, and he come to me and he’d say, ‘Ah, Hobbs’. So he come to me one day and he said, ‘Ah, Hobbs I understand that your are eligible now’ he said, ‘to be called-up!’ I said, ‘Yes, Mr. Paisley, yes.’ ‘Now look’ he said, ‘I can perhaps pull some strings and keep you here and make you a Reserved worker. He said, ‘We can keep you here, you are a skilled brickyard worker, Hobbs.’ I said, ‘Shall I tell you something Mr. Paisley?’ he said, ‘What?’ I said, ‘Get stuffed because I want to go!’ He said, ‘Hobbs, no!’ He said, ‘You can’t mean that.’ I said, ‘I bloody well do!’ And he walked away shaking his head. He said, ‘I’m going to see Chappell now’ and I thought you needn’t bother because Chappell is going to say the same thing as I just did. And that’s what happened. So that was goodbye to Eastwood’s eventually because we didn’t go until March 1943 and oh, that was five months from birthday to call-up. And the funny part about it was the day that my leave ended when I got de-mobbed, when the war was over, was almost within a day or two of when I got called-up in March (1943), it was almost exactly three years. Yes, a marvellous three years.

I took what they call a ‘Class B’ release. That was because in 1946 there were so many Servicemen now kicking their heels and waiting to be de-mobbed when they could take a short cut called a ‘Class B’ release and get back to Civvy Street, get back putting the country on it’s feet again. I mean what was wanted more than brickyard labourers? So I went in front of this stern RN Captain, you know, all the gold braid stuff. We used to call it ‘scrambled eggs’ around his hat, it was oak leaves but we called it ‘scrambled eggs’. He said, oh, I had to go in, take my cap off, stand to attention rigidly, ‘Stand at ease.’ Caps off, stand to attention, standing there and as I say there was these Officers. They could of course lose the cosy life and all that that they’d been having, they were all going back to Civvy Street, they are not wanted anymore, same as me. But they were a little bit different to me because I was going to make bricks, what were they going to do? But anyway I thought you’ve got to ‘spruce him’ because he’s a stern RN man, he’s a RN and that’s stiff and stern. So if you want to get out you’ve got to stretch the truth a bit — so he said, ‘Right laddie, now I understand you want ‘Class B’ release?’ ‘Yes, Sir!’ ‘What’s the reason for this then? Don’t you like the Navy?’ ‘Oh, yes Sir, I think the Navy is lovely, yes Sir. But I’ve been thinking’ ‘oh, have you? What have you to tell me?’ I said, ‘Well Sir, I was thinking about my old parents, I mean my mum and dad are getting on a bit’ I said ‘and I’ve been gone three years.’ He said, ‘Oh, yes.’ I said, ‘Yes, and I’ve got three other brothers, they’ve all been gone years, four years they’ve been gone.’ ‘Oh, I didn’t know that. So you want to leave the Navy, do you?’ And I said, ‘Yes, Sir.’ He said, ‘Well, ‘Class B’ release’ he said, ‘can’t you see your career in the Navy carrying on?’ ‘With all due respect, Sir, no!’ ‘Why not?’ ‘Well, I think you have to be born to go in the Navy kind of thing and I’m not Sir. I’m just hostilities only, HO and I think the country wants all the bricks they can get to re-build everywhere.’ ’Good point, good point lad, good point.’ ‘And I’m a skilled brickyard worker, Sir.’ ‘Ah, right. Yes I think we’ll grant you, we’ll be in touch. OK laddie, you will take a ‘Class B’ release, we’ll be in touch.’ ‘Thank you Sir.’ Caps on. Lovely — and the PO said, ‘You lucky little sod.’ I did ‘spruce him’, because I didn’t believe … well I was going to come back and help to make bricks and the country did need people like me.�

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